Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1887-05-20
How Protection Affects Farmers

We commend the following well con-
sidered letter. recently published in the
New York Times to our farmer readers ;
and especially tn those of our friends who
may have read The superficial views of he
same subject OF a Virginia correspondent,
in the Maryland Farmer, recent publish.
ed in that journal. As the Times has
heretofore frequeatly maintained, the a.
legged duty pretended to be put upon
wheat and other agricultural products, 10
q mere subterfuge-a blind intended to
delude the ignorant farmer into patiently
enduring the burdensome hardships OF
the protective policy. In great acricul-
tural country like 'his, whose producti, n
of cereals is always so largely in excess of
the home consumption. ali commerce in
these products between this and foreign
countries is necessarily in the nature of
expor,ation. The pr>tense, therefore, OF
placing an import duty upon these pro-
ducts is the fiimsies' kind Of fraud by
which only the mos, ignorant will be de
luded. The letter is as follows;
To the Editor Of TIE Ner York Ti,aes
.Of all the poor deluded, tsriff ridden
mob of consumers no one makes q more
United States To him organized pro-
lection is the daughter Of the horse leech.
and he has to give" give" give" from
the moment he gets up in the morning.
when he WASHES bis hands with taxed
soap. until be goes To bed with q 'axed
might cap" if be still wears one From
the cradle to the grave he is taxed with.
ont any mitigation. To him protection
Of home industry is simply to give and
not to receive. What q swind'e i, is, for
instance, 10 put duty on wheat. when all
the wheat We imported during 1856 was
$50. $40 bushels, " lille our exports of wheat
during the same year were 81, ,75a. 200
bushels. besides 5000. 900 barrels of -four.
The farmer. serf TO the organized army of
protection, is not benefited one cent by
the protection Of wheat. He gets in New
York the price, less freight and charges.
that the wheat sells for in London. For
instance, / see that American wheat on
The 29th OF April was selling in Londsn
for IS I'd. per hundred pounds, which is
as near as possible $i.03 for bushel OF Go
pounds. The price in New York was 90
cent?, leaving 10 cents bushel Tor freight
and charges and prof, IL London Now.
as the farmer in the United States only
gets the London price, iess charges, tor his
wheat, which is 93 cents net, let me show
how much graduated sugar 10 bushels Of
lsl I, 4 H.
and how much it will buy in New York.
The price for g.anula'ed sugar in London
is los per hundred weight. or for liz lbs.
which is as near as possible 81 cents per
pound. The price for the same kiad of
sugar in New York ia wholesale is 81 cts.
per pound.
With these fac's before US We find that
10 bushels of wheat at -93 cents in New
York. or 50 30, will buy little less than
162 lbs. of granulated sugar at 81 Gets. per
pound. The same ten bushels of wheat
at SO cents net in London will buy as near
as possible 268s pounds of grsnulsted su-
gar at 81 cents per pound. In other words,
when the American farmer wants TO turn
10 bushels OF bis wheat into sugar in Lon
don he gets 265t pounds. and il he wants
to do the same thing in New York he gets
only 162 pounds, or 103 pounds less.
In 1886 We exported 63,656,433 bushels
of Indian core. The price of corn in Lon
don is at present eos per 4s0 pounds, or.
as near as possible, cent per pound
Now, busbel of corn weighing so lbs.
is selling tor 47t cents in New York. That
81 cents that it is selling more for in Lon
don is for freight, etc. Anyhow, the far
mer does not get any more for his corn in
New York than in London. less expenses.
Well then, 10 bushels of corn in New York
at 47I cents, or 81 IS. if converted into
granulated sugar at ST cents per pound.
will buy, as near as possible, S2s pounds
of sugar in New York On the other hand
10 bushels of corn, the net price of which
less charges is S4 IS in London, if conver
ted into granulated sugar at 3! cents per
pound, will buy fraction over 1853 lbs
or 53 more in London than in New York.
With these little statistics as a mere be-
ginning, will leave my fellow mobsmen
consumers, namely the farmers, to reflect
on the army organization of protection
But l promise to show the tyranny and
swindle up al infnitum."
j. s. MOORE.